lisa-on-ice

hey there,
i've just become the proud owner of a new tropical fish tank. Ive been reading up and trying to learn all about my fishies needs.
I know that fish need some 'light-off' time at nights etc but i was wondering if there is a minimum time they need the light on for? It seems a little bit of a waste to hav the light on all day when we are all out at work/school etc unless this light is paramount to the fish and live plants survival?
The tank gets some natural light from our reasonably sunny room, but it is not very close to the window.

sunstrip

I have all my tanks on a timer...they come on at 2 PM and off at 10 PM...if you don't want to use a timer...just turn them on when you get home from work and off when you go to bed..if they get darkness for 8 hours or so...you should be fine.

GreenMan13

It seems for fish that having the dark time is more important then the amount of light time. For plants though they need more lighting time from more intense lighting. It all depends on the plant as to how much though.

COBettaCouple

We run the lights for 12 hours at the most.